andykara2003

Looks gorgeous. Hope it’s a straight up adventure & not bogged down with RPG mechanics like so many adventure games

I’ve always been baffled by this weird niche of sexualising young girls in gaming, anime etc. - who likes this stuff? I don’t buy the ‘sexualised characters are over 18’ clause for this game one bit. Seems a bit sad to me - If you’re an adult & into this stuff it’s time to get out more. Preferably away from children.

I really hope games move away from this ageing point of interest map route. I find games like this less and less interesting. And having to clutter every game with RPG mechanics and stats turns me right off. Take a note from BOTW & use creativity to produce games that naturally surprise & delight without all this distraction.

Oh well, Mario kart had a good innings..

Put it on a smallish, low-use consumer CRT & it still looks pretty good.

Metroid release date at last! Probably a ‘and one more thing..’ at the end of the presentation, game releasing next day.

Please make that the last time. Really great idea that worked well but I want Mario to be firmly in the mushroom kingdom from now on.

Some think the game hasn’t held up well, but honestly if you give it a proper go, it’s still amazingly fun. The 1.2 control layout is perfect - c buttons for movement and analogue for aim. So satisfying, the missions are still great - it just takes giving it a little time to get readjusted. You can even use 2 controllers for dual analogue.

Amazing! I’ll always play on original hardware + CRT for nostalgia and to avoid too-sharp polygons which look a bit odd with N64 - but this project is very interesting.

fabulous, love this

@Anti-Matter I want whatever you're having. Make it a double so I can catch up to where you are

Actually if you really know how to play the game, can power slide properly, chain drifts etc, the core gameplay is still absolutely fantastic. I find it odd that people have started to deride this game, but eventually realised it’s usually newer players trying to go back from MK8. It plays so differently, but when you get it, its still very very good.

It doesn’t have that super-stable handling of MK8, but for this game that was intentional. If you mess the cart around in a way that represents bad driving, you go unstable & unless you counter, the game will spin you out. This creates another layer to the handling model that’s immensely satisfying and rewards decisive,, clean gameplay.

From my perspective, we all love Nintendo for their ethos of creating a collaborative, harmonious gaming atmosphere. So I think it’s right that we should expect them to treat their employees with respect too. If they have gone off the rails in that respect, action should be taken. I love Nintendo, but if they’re bad employers then it definitely would sour the experience for me.

@accc exactly!

@AndyC_MK111 Same goes - and Prime was 60fps already.

@Chrysologus Totally, each to their own & I can appreciate that. You might love the deblur mode of the ultraHDMI - perfect sharp N64 pixels similar to the PS1.

N64 on the right CRT at the right distance looks much much better, more clean, vibrant and less pixelated than those N64 images.

Love it - bet it looks lovely

@NinChocolate Love this! What method did you use to interlace the signal?

Never liked this sort of stuff - I sold my mclassic. They have a weird unnatural effect reminiscent of bilinear filtering in SNES emulation - yuck. And I never liked the forced colour ‘enhancement”. It smacks of trying to impress with an image that appeals at first but then after a while looks overdone and unnatural. Give me the developer’s intentions every time.

These guys have absolutely no idea. I bet they'd put candy crush above Zelda.

@Damo Absolutely agreed - love this site

Amazing project, but high resolution for the N64 to me just make the game look like a bundle of polygons. For me, the only way I've seen to make the game shine while retaining the original atmosphere while looking cleaner is via the Gamecube via RGB into a consumer CRT in 480i at 5-6ft. It's absolutely magic and as far as I know, no one seems to know about it. The interlaced image softens the image beautifully while still looking so clean - and avoids the overly pixellated image of 480p (not the original feel of the game). As it's a consumer set, the interlacing isn't apparent at 5-6ft. The really amazing thing is that with this setup, the GC's upscaling of the original 2D elements blend almost perfectly with the 480i image, so look clean and as if they're supposed to be there. Again, 480p wouldn't allow for this - or 480i on a pro CRT for that matter, low-use consumer set is best. Of course trying to get this to look good on a flat panel is hopeless. 480p and below looks overly pixellated and takes away from the authentic image of the world. Hi res just fine for a lot of people and I completely understand that people love that, it's just not the world that Nintendo presented and I wish more people could see how much that takes away from the original vision. On the right display, you have the best of all worlds - original feel of the game, higher res but not too-high-res, beautiful, smooth, clean image and nicely integrated text & 2D elements. When all this comes together, you are truly transported seamlessly into the seminal world that this team created, fully absorbed without any distracting elements to pull you out of the experience, invoking the true spirit and magic of the game that blew us all away so profoundly back in the day.

Would love to see this for the N64 online multiplayer stuff - specifically MK64

Fine to prefer other consoles but you’ll never find a seasoned well rounded industry pundit who feels the GameCube wasn’t good. Saying so says more about the commenter’s lack of understanding. Possibly due to being young at the time & susceptible to console war bias.

I wish we had retro meet-ups in the south west of the UK. Seems to be nothing.

@UglyCasanova It's all good - it was made by the EAD division

@Dirty0814 Totally wrong. Many GC games can output 480p. Most in my collection do in fact.

@HolyGeez03 There’s no such thing as RGB component. Component is YPbPr

@mattysaurus Unless you have a CRT of course. You can get a 480p RGB signal directly from the console via either a modded official component cable or GCvideo. Although there are fantastic solutions out there, flat panels can never match a good CRT for a smooth, clean 480p image, whatever the input or scaler.

@Spider-Kev I’m assuming you’re not a follower of retro stuff these days? Component gives a much better signal than s-video, this is universally known on the retro scene. All the hardcore gamers knew that back in the day as well. Component is close to RGB quality.

Love the Douglas adams. And love your site Damien

@Scapetti Love your attitude - you're absolutely right. Everyone (including me) obsesses too much over this stuff sometimes. I expect I could have a great time with Stadia etc.

@Scapetti I get your points other than the latency issue. Having game mode off often goes past the 100ms point so even half that would be too much for most non-casual gamers who prefer low latency. But for casuals such as yourself it's a great solution as you say.

Sounds like I'm of the same opinion as everyone else - Navi's absolutely fine, just indicitave of the era.

Trouble is when the game is played at high resolutions the polygons become too defined & the game loses it's charm & magic - the qualities that make the game so incredibly special. 480i on consumer CRT (preferably a Trinitron via Gamecube's RGB) is the only way it looks better than the original while retaining the authentic look. This is because the interlacing of the 640x480 image on a low use consumer set mitigates the over-pixellation that would usually occur at 480p - and is mild enough not to be distracting at five feet from a 25" set (optimal CRT size for GC). The result is a very authentic & smooth image. For Pro CRT monitors the interlacing is too distracting - a low-use consumer set is best. 480p and above looks inauthentic for N64 & even the best N64 HDMI mods are dreadful vs CRT. The 3DS version also fails to capture the magic of the original for various reasons.

I think only CRT enthusiasts who were blown away by the original game in the 90's will understand what I'm talking about. the best N64 HDMI mods are dreadful vs CRT.

Ocarina looks best in 480i on Gamecube with 25" consumer CRT - much better than any emulation. Can't argue with that.

@Freek Love it! I do the same, the only 100% authentic experience. To be lost forever at some point unfortunately.

@Freek Ahh but do you play them on CRT?

Their wording is suspicious.

Used to love edge in the 90s & early 2000’s. The best, most intelligently put together outlet both on & offline. But I think some hubris got in the way & they started giving out ridiculous scores & opinions. Double dash 5/10?? Even if you don’t gel with the game it’s at least an 8.

@EmmatheBest I thought PAL & NTSC are separated for MK64?? Would be insane if not..

Personally the Banjo Kazooie soundtrack is my favourite of all time. I woke up my 20 year old autistic daughter with Clanker’s cavern today, she was smiling from ear to ear. And I was too! Might make Nintendo tunes a part of her morning wake up routine.

Prediction: F-zero GX will still be better.

@Axelay71 Nothing like original hardware & CRT - using original carts just give a sense of occasion to the play session that you just can’t get elsewhere.

Top tip: why not stop moaning & play one the most outright fun games ever made.

@Medic_Alert Nice one! So true, people love to complain, but we all have huge backlogs.

The original stick is the best I've ever used by a good margin - I wonder in they've managed to match it here.

@Burning_Spear Thanks, definitely temped.

@Toads-Friend Nice one - is the single player campaign good?